It is known to provide an airplane with nose landing gear and with a plurality of main undercarriages, e.g. two of them. Each of the main undercarriages comprises four wheels, for example, disposed in a so-called twin-wheel configuration. There is thus a front axle carrying two wheels on a common axis and a rear axle likewise carrying two wheels on a common axis. The undercarriage is movable and capable of occupying a retracted or rest position. The fuselage has frames that are interrupted in the vicinity of the undercarriage to provide the volume required for connecting the undercarriage to the fuselage and for receiving the undercarriage in its retracted position.
Nevertheless, the wheel box designed to receive the undercarriage therefore occupies space in the bottom portion of the fuselage. As a result, the volume available in the fuselage, e.g. volume suitable for use as holds, is therefore reduced.
Furthermore, the undercarriages present a structure and a linkage that are complicated. They generally do not move very far.